Friday, January 2, 2009

Thomas Edison Communications Analysis

Abstract

There has been some debate relating to the probability that Thomas Alva Edison was ever involved in the design or building of a ‘spirit communications’ device. Modern Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) proponents have claimed that they are in contact with Edison and that he has assisted them in their efforts to build modern devices. Mediumistic communications were established with Thomas Edison in 2006 during which time he mentioned several details regarding the project and acknowledge it was in fact attempted but failed. He further described the working conditions and the limitations and problems they had encountered. If the modern EVP investigators have in fact been in contact with Thomas Edison through their device as they claim, it would be interesting to compare the transcripts of the two types of communication to see if they are consistent. Were this to be the case, it would represent a new type of correlation between two quite distinct forms of communication and would give some credibility to the potential for both forms of spirit communications.

Claims from EVP promoter Chris Moon

Mr. Moon has claimed on his website and in various interviews over the past few years that he has communicated with Thomas Edison, (presumably using these box technologies) and that Edison has given valuable advice that has helped in the newer development of more recent devices. Moon has even gone so far as to name the new boxes “Edison Boxes” reflecting the claimed assistance of Mr. Edison.

If this is true, there should exist some recording of these communications. A written transcript may also exist, or could certainly be created with ease. This could open an opportunity as will be described momentarily.

Experiences of Spirit Advocate Bonnie Vent

Bonnie Vent is a psychic medium and Spirit Advocate. She has assisted those who are departed with their post-mortem issues for several decades.

She was contacted in 2006 by an engineer who wrote to her. All he wrote was “Tell me about my son” in an email to Bonnie. That was it. Bonnie can pick up impressions from emails. She formed an image of a young man standing before a coffin extending a silver necklace in his hand. The engineer responded that he had no doubt Bonnie had been in communication with his late son. He wanted to build a device to speak with his son and sought Bonnie’s help in contacting Thomas Edison.

Bonnie had never attempted this before. She soon discovered how to do so and she spoke with Thomas Edison. With the engineer’s written questions before her, and now speaking with Edison, Bonnie asked each question and wrote the response she heard. Bonnie is not an audio engineer and has no background in the field. She sent the responses to the engineer who told Bonnie the answers were meaningful and was subsequently building the device.

A written transcript of these communications does exist at this time.

Upon researching the history of Edison’s involvement with spirit communication we found there is some debate whether Edison ever built a device. Some have alleged it never happened.

Edison told Bonnie they had built a prototype using existing parts. No new patent was ever applied for, which is consistent with the patent history. There apparently were some fatal flaws with the device. People were shocked and one was even thrown across the room. No records of this work exist, according to the recognized experts in all matters relating to the life and times of Thomas Edison.

When an Edison historian was queried, she responded that while she could not confirm the existence of the device or any drawings, she also had to say that the events as described sounded precisely the way Edison would have behaved had he been presented with this situation. So this curator was reluctant to say these events could never have happened.

Proposed Analysis

We propose to compare transcripts from Chris Moon and Bonnie Vent. We would be looking for answers to common questions or themes as well as thematic and stylistic consistencies from the two disparate sources.

We suggest that a high degree of correlation should exist if the proposed discarnate communicator is in fact the same individual. We should see this correlation in answers to questions and in the words chosen.

Since the ITC technology claims to be using direct communications with a discarnate, there should be no filtering as is the case with mediumship. It is reliably suspected that there may be a filter effect that is a natural by-product of most mediumship. So we should expect there to be some deviances attributable to this effect. However, we should also note several consistencies if real mediumistic communications occurred.

We do not ad hoc give either form of purported spirit communication weight of credibility over the other. At the outset it is our presumption that no spirit communications are possible and therefore that the analysis should produce no significant correlation if any correlations at all.

One important assumption and therefore limitation of the analysis is that by random chance, similar themed questions were asked in both cases. We don’t know at the outset whether or not this might be true since we have yet to examine the EVP investigators’ transcripts. Should this assumption prove incorrect the analysis will be likewise impaired.

Possible Outcomes

Several outcomes from the analysis may be envisioned. One possible outcome is that there is no correlation between the two sets of communications, presuming similar or related questions were asked. This would indicate either that Edison was not involved in the communications, or that Edison chose to reveal different information to the two different correspondents.

Another possible outcome might be high degrees of correlation between the two sets of communications. This would suggest a cooperation at some level. But it does not de facto prove spirit communication. It is possible for example that one or both of the communicators were capable of clairvoyantly knowing the outcome in a precognitive fashion. In other words, one or both communicators might have known what the other would eventually learn before the fact. There is some reasonably good evidence that precognition and presentiment are possible and that they occur more often than one might expect, so this possibility may not be rejected out of hand.

It is possible there was collusion between the two parties. While Bonnie Vent has known of Chris Moon for some time, and knew who he was at the time of the conversations with Thomas Edison, she had not corresponded with him and he had not yet conversed with Edison at that time, as we now understand. Chris Moon on his part has never recognized Bonnie Vent’s work as far as we know, so it is unclear how he might have initiated collaboration to this end. For these reasons, we tend to reject the notion that collusion could explain correlations.

Summary

Two people have claimed to be in communications with Thomas Edison. One is a medium the other is a proponent of EVP and ITC technologies. The current proposal is to perform an analysis of the two communications looking for similarities and dissimilarities to see if there are any correlations, either factual or thematic.

Such a finding is limited by the similarity of the questions asked at the time by each communicator respectively, and potentially by filtering factors that may enter the communications specifically on the part of the medium.

Ad hoc, the expectation is that no correlation will be discovered, and that falsification of this hypothesis would suggest that more work should be done with both approaches to better understand their points of correlation and in the future potentially identify why such correlations might exist.

Introduction

Over 40 years' experience in the investigation of anomalous phenomena and parapsychological research.
Research includes structured investigations of the personalities of mediumistic claimants, psychokinetic effects with a focus on macro-PK, anomalous cognition and perception studies (remote viewing and remote intention) and the use of mediumship in historical research.